Francis Pegahmagabow - Political Life

Political Life

Upon his return to Canada he continued to serve in the Algonquin Regiment militia as a non-permanent active member. Following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps, he was elected chief of the Parry Island Band from February 1921. Once in office he caused a schism in the band after he wrote a letter calling for certain individuals and those of mixed race to be expelled from the reserve. He was re-elected in 1924 and served until he was deposed via an internal power struggle in April 1925. Before the motion could go through, Pegahmagabow resigned. A decade later, he was appointed councillor from 1933 to 1936. In 1933 the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) changed its policies and forbade First Nation chiefs from corresponding with the DIA. They directed that all correspondence, as of the spring of 1933, go through the Indian Agent. This gave huge power to the Agent, something that grated on Pegahmagabow, who did not get along with his Indian Agent, John Daly. First Nation members who served in the army during World War I were particularly active as political activists. They had travelled the world, earned the respect of the comrades in the trenches, and refused to be sidelined by the newly empowered Indian Agent. Historian Paul Williams termed these advocates as "returned soldier chiefs", and singled out a few, including Pegahmagabow, as being especially active. This caused intense disagreements with Daly and eventually led to Pegahmagabow being deposed as chief. Daly and other agents who came in contact with Pegahmagabow were incredibly frustrated by his attempts, in his words, to free his people from "white slavery." The Indian agents labelled him as a "mental case" and strived to sideline him and his supporters.

In addition to the power struggle between the Indian council and the DIA that Pegahmagabow took issue with, he was a constant agitator over the islands in Georgian Bay of the Lake Huron. The Regional First Nation governments claimed the islands as their own and Pegahmagabow and other chiefs tried in vain to get recognition of their status.

During World War II he worked as a guard at a munitions plant near Nobel, Ontario while being a Sergeant-Major in the local militia. In 1943, he became the Supreme Chief of The Native Independent Government, an early First Nations organization.